


a little patch (of love)

by taniavee28



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:27:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22349524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taniavee28/pseuds/taniavee28
Summary: (fanfic for @intoapuddle's fic Monochrome. contains heavy spoilers.)"check my twitter dms there's a lil somethin for u :))"in which Seagull has a little gift for Chrome.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 16
Kudos: 45
Collections: from chromies with love





	a little patch (of love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [intoapuddle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/intoapuddle/gifts).



> this is very heavily inspired by, and written as a thank you for, @intoapuddle's gorgeous fic Monochrome. its a lovely, lovely fic that changed me in so many ways. if you're reading this, puddle, i hope you find at least a little bit of the joy you give me and so many other people who love you and your work. please don't have such high hopes though lmao :') ❤️

The day seems to pass by like an utterly normal Saturday, except that it doesn't.

Dan's still sticking by his routine of surfing the net and sleeping in at attempts to get his batteries recharged, but Phil's texts from the morning have apparently replaced his low batteries with high-powered full ones, so he's sat at his desk feeling a low buzz of nervous excitement that runs through his body and urges his legs to jig lightly.

The messages had been simple, really, yet it showed Phil's two sides that had only recently started to bleed into one another.

He opened Phil's text messages first, the first three sent to him earlier today, and the later two from half an hour ago. 

_ "Gooood morning!! <33" _

_ "i rlly didn't want to leave so early but its a big day today :((( you looked so cute i wanted to keep snuggling :((((" _

_ "ill come over once im done for the day, i love you" _

_ "check my twitter dms there's a lil somethin for u :))" _

_ "<3" _

Dan smiled a little reading those, and sent back a black heart and an "ooh, a surprise?" 

He read Seagull's dms next. 

"Squawk <3! That's "Hello Dan, I hope you've had a wonderful day today, I love you" in seagull, in case you wanted to know btw."

"A bunch of nerds and I set out to make a game out of a silly story i had in my head, and back when we started we certainly didn't expect it to get this big, but we've come this far and I honestly don't think we could have done it without you guys - the ones who experienced it first. You specifically, Dan. (I mean this for all players too but I'm slightly biased, can you blame me?)"

"Soo as a little thank you we've made a little something just for the four of you! Whatever it is that you get is something meant for you and only you, it's personalised and yours to keep forever. Think of it like a little piece of the game for you to keep :))"

"Really, genuinely hoping you'd like it <33 - Seagull"

Yeah, Dan was fully awake after that. 

He clicks the link sent to him and downloads the patch. He tries to silence his loud thoughts by getting up to make himself a cup of coffee while he waits for the patch to download. It works, but only barely.

A thank you gift? What's that supposed to mean? Dan supposes he can understand why - what with the looming official release date of Caves and Gardens being a mere few days away now. It's beautiful that they'd want to show appreciation for the people who helped make it, but a whole separate patch just for the four of them?

He brings his cup of steaming coffee with him back to his room and sets it on the table. the patch has downloaded and he notices that it's a rather small file.

He takes a sip of his coffee and sets it down, taking a deep breath. He starts up the game.

It starts up as usual.

He doesn't know why did he expect the game to start up any differently, but he did. He feels the coils of excitement tighten just a little bit when the main menu loads. It all looks the same, but from what Phil had told him, he's in for a surprise. 

He (quite aggressively) presses play. 

-

He's in the garden. 

Now, Dan wouldn't go so far as to say that he knows the garden and Dye's plants like the back of his hand - because, more often than not, people don't really know the backs of their hands as intimately as it might seem - but the garden's a place he's spent a lot of time in, and he's very aware of any small differences that it might have. Phil, PJ and Angie, bless their hearts, have made the cues just about obvious enough and dan's been perceptive enough, and it's worked well enough thus far at least. 

The garden seems to be the same. Dye's plants are as green and lush as ever. Dye and White's cabin is the same, too. Dye and White, however, seem to be in their own moment, with Dye watering his plants, and White being there next to him. 

Dan's character walks up to them to see if they interact with him. They do. 

"Hello Dan, welcome back!" Dye chirps and his sprite smiles at him. White seems to be smiling too. They both seem to be happy to see him and Dan honestly can't say he doesn't feel the same. At this point, they're as close to him as long time friends would be, after all. 

"We've got a little something for you, Dan. We found it while you were gone and we thought you'd like to keep it," White says. Dan feels the nervous excitement surge through him yet again. 

"A thank you gift, so to speak!" Dye chirps. 

Dan can't help but feel a little touched. 

He gets two options. 

*Awww. *For….what?

While Dan emotion-wise leans towards the first option a greater part of him is a little more curious to know what Dye and White have to say, and so he chooses that instead. 

Dye seems to have expected this.

"I had a feeling you'd ask! It's simply because you're our friend, Dan. You've helped us navigate and see things we weren't sure of." 

White chips in. "Even if we've been here longer, you came along and helped us out on our own journeys. I really don't think we could have done it without you." 

It cuts back to Dye. "That's why we wanted to give you something small and special, as a little thank you." 

Dan stares at Dye's smiling sprite. It sounds as if Phil, PJ and Angie are addressing Dan, or rather, Chrome, a lot more directly through Dye and White than they've ever had. It makes a little more sense to Dan now as he thinks back to Phil's texts, about it being personalised and something meant only for him. 

Dye's words make him wonder if Phil had spilled the beans to the other two already, but it's a fleeting thought and he's reminded of the fact that Phil had made it clear that he respects Dan's decisions. Besides, Phil talks in metaphors enough for everyone to let it slide, and he supposed that the back and forth messaging they've had even as SeagullFW and achromatic_bot would qualify as friendly banter, anyway. 

He trusts Phil. He wants to continue doing so. He's told Phil things he probably wouldn't tell another soul, and Phil's done the same. Phil cares about Dan, and that much is evident in the way he's persistent on working through and communicating things with him. Dan cares about Phil, too. He knows that he can bring things up to Phil. He knows that if this is bothering him he's just a phone call away. 

He decides to wait on it. He reminds himself that he hasn't had the full experience yet. He has a game to play, a thank you gift to unwrap further. 

And so he presses continue, going down the path that leads to the cabin. 

-

If Dan's looking for his in-game aha moment, he gets it as soon as he's on the path back to his cabin.

The path to his cabin is darker than it was before, for one.

The tile of land he's standing on emits a white glow. He tentatively takes a step forward. The tile illuminates. He takes a step back. The two tiles continue glowing. The more tiles he steps on, the brighter his surroundings get. He's able to see the tiles further away from him. 

He gets it now. He's supposed to use this light to move forward. He's supposed to use his progress as a guide. He takes more steps forward.

Dan's going on and on on the rather lengthy path and he realises that the further he progresses, the louder he's able to hear something. It's muted, and it sounds like an odd mix of rustling and rumbling. As it becomes amplified, it strikes him that it resembles the soft noises of rain.

Just then, it starts to rain in-game. 

Grey, pixelated thunderclouds loom over the path as he moves forward. The illuminated tiles make it a little easier for him to see where he's headed, but then the rain seems to fall harder. The music grows louder, and there is an occasional flash of lightning, and the rumble of thunder following it that shakes his speakers.

He's not just walking in the rain. He's in a storm. 

He sees the looming shadow of his cabin from the distance. Through the storm and the tile trail that has gotten impossibly brighter the closer he approaches his cabin, he spots a flickering light coming from within. 

He enters. The flickering is coming from his desk. On his desk is one of the prettiest crystals Dan's ever seen.

It's a stone comprised of bright, vivid colours. Amethyst purple and emerald green are the two most abundant hues. There's flecks of amber yellow and ruby red and vibrant sapphire blue and rich onyx black. Each colour glitters individually, casting a halo around it. 

He's never seen anything like it. He takes a moment to stare at the intricacy of it and it makes him tear a little. There's so much detail and care that has come into this, and thinking that they wanted this to be an experience only for him would be enough to make him cry. 

He reads the description. 

*Rainbow Fluorite

*Plant it in the ground and see what happens.

Dan peeks out of the cabin to see if the storm ahs subsided. It hasn't. He returns inside and waits. 

And waits. 

Dan peeks out again, and it seems like the storm is showing no signs of stopping.

He continues to wait. it doesn't stop. 

He steps out one last time and realises that it hasn't slowed at all. It's as if the game wants him to go out in the storm and plant it. 

The next time he heads back into the house and clicks on the crystal there's an additional line of dialogue. 

*Go on, plant it! In storms are change and growth, remember?

_ In storms are change and growth. _

Dan takes a sip of his drink to steady himself. 

He steps out and plants the glimmering crystal on a brown patch of land by the side of the cabin. 

For a moment, nothing happens. Then the screen starts shaking.

There's a loud, sudden rumbling sound and a closeup to the scene. The screen continues to shake. From the little plot of land arises a magnificent oak tree. The bark is a deep, rich brown. Bright leaves in every colour of the rainbow fluorite glitter and gleam, and each individual leaf sparkles enough to be standalone crystals. 

Three sprites pop out from the tree - a bird, a triangle with limbs, and a red ruby. Dan's character does nothing as he sits frozen in shock.

The bird sprite approaches him. 

"Squawk!" 

Holy  _ shit _ .

-

Phil picks up at the third ring. 

"Dan." He sounds cheery, and a little breathless.

"Phil." His voice wavers.

Phil's voice changes instantly to one of concern. "Dan, are you okay?"

"Fucking hell, no. Fuck. That whole thing you asked me to play, I played it and now I'm in shambles because what the  _ fuck _ , Phil. What the fuck! The whole thing, all of it...it was all….."

".....a bad idea?"

"Absolutely breathtaking, Phil, mother of God." Dan's voice shakes. "I can't even find the words for it. Jesus Christ. The art. The music. The  _ words.  _ Your words. Your story that you've made me a tiny piece of and made me want to break down into tears on a Saturday morning."

Dan sniffles into the phone.

"I'm crying. I'm actually crying, because you made something really fucking precious for me, and I have feelings about it. I'm allowed to have feelings about it, screw you." 

Phil huffs out relieved laughter. "You like it?"

"With all of my heart. I really fucking like it."

"I'm really happy then," Phil says, and Dan can hear the smile in his voice. He wants to cry all over again. 

After a pause, Phil says, "I meant it, y'know? Everything I said in there."

"Fuck, you're gonna make me cry again. I... I really appreciate it Phil. All of it." 

He feels so much, in this moment. There's so many emotions for him to experience. They're all bubbling within him, competing to show themselves on the surface 

There is, however, a question he's been meaning to ask, and it sticks out of the swirls of emotion like a sore thumb. 

"Do…. PJ and Angie know that I'm Chrome?"

Phil's reply is instant. "No, Dan. They don't. It's something you said you wanted to share, and I respect every one of your wishes. You mean a lot to me, Dan."

"You mean a lot to me too, Phil…..and thank you. I think I'm going to tell them soon."

-

Seagull, as it turns out, has a lot of words to say. 

Seagull squawks a lot. TriangleNoses sounds awfully posh, and irregularsymbol seems to have a melodious voice. TriangleNoses, in utter PJ fashion, goes on a tangent about art. irregularsymbol seems to even talk in a musical manner, and Dan reckons Angie's child is incredibly lucky.

Dan goes back to Seagull. 

Seagull's sprite regards him with a pensive look. 

"May I squawk a secret to you, Dan?" 

"I might be seeing this world from up above, but I feel the emotions in this world as intricately as I feel my own."

It's Phil speaking directly to him. 

"I treat this world like it is the garden - it is something I've wanted to keep and protect, but sometimes, I end up running into the cave instead."

"Now, I've realised that it is okay if the Garden goes a little wild. I've realised that I do not necessarily have to be all by my own in the cave."

"Thank you for making me realise that, Dan." 

  
  



End file.
